


light up this whole town

by couldaughter



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alcohol, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Get Together, Pre Ep 16, Queer Shieldy Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 18:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1560395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/couldaughter/pseuds/couldaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye is pretty sure she's upset Simmons somehow, but she really can't remember what she said or why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	light up this whole town

The Bus was quiet. Much too quiet.

Skye gently picked her way across the room, careful not to touch the floor, and awkwardly leapt into her bunk. Her calf thwacked painfully against the bed frame, but a quick glance over her shoulder revealed that no one’d woken up, which meant that she was free to clutch her leg and moan quietly for a bit. That was definitely going to bruise.

After a few minutes, a soft noise of surprise drifted in from the lounge. Grinning, Skye leant out from her bunk until she was nearly horizontal and winked at Jemma, who was stood frozen in the doorway to the lounge, clearly having just emerged from a long session doing science things Skye can’t pronounce even when she was sober. Which she was, at that moment. Mostly.

Jemma nodded in her direction and then started her own game of The Floor is Lava, stepping very carefully over Fitz’s prone form and avoiding the sprawled tangle of limbs that was Melinda May and Maria Hill.

“What on earth is going on?” Jemma whispered once she was about five feet from Skye’s bunk, posed perilously on one foot in preparation for the jump from couch to bed.

Skye giggled. “Well, I, uh, I think it started out as poker night and then beer got involved and now everything’s shiny. It’s great.” She patted the mattress next to her, winking at Jemma and making her blush reflexively. It was very cute. Skye took a moment to realise she might’ve said that out loud.

Judging from the look on Jemma’s face beneath the red flush, Skye was probably right. Her impulse control was always basically shot after a couple of beers, anyway. Jemma still came to sit next to Skye on the bed though, so Skye counted it as a win.

“I thought you were horrid at poker?” Jemma was still whispering even though Skye’s almost convinced the bunks are soundproof. There’d definitely been a lack of horrifying grunting coming through the wall, so she’d pretty much just assumed she was right.

Skye grinned lazily at her. Most of her gestures were lazy, actually - alcohol loosened Skye up, and it wasn’t as if she was particularly uptight when sober. “Yeah. That’s why I don’t bet real money, smartypants.” She put an arm around Jemma’s shoulder, tugging her into a sideways hug. “Although considering you haven’t come to poker night yet, I guess there’s no way you could’ve known that.”

“Oh, um, of course! It’s just, I don’t usually play. I got pressganged into playing it strip a few years ago and-” Jemma cut herself off abruptly. Skye was almost certain she wasn’t the only one in the bunk who was several bus stops past sober.

“That is adorable. You are adorable, I can’t believe you played strip poker in college, this is amazing, I am never going to forget this moment.” Skye gasped this out through giggles, stomach hurting a little from the lack of air. Maybe she wasn’t as drunk as she’d thought. Maybe it was just Simmons making her head spin the whole time.

Jemma is still blushing so hard Skye’s a little surprised she hasn’t lost sensation in her legs. She pinches one just to be sure, and the answering yelp makes her nod sagely. Maybe high school biology hadn’t been completely useless.

“What did you do that for, you- you- you numpty,” Jemma finished a little lamely. She’d never been very good at insults, especially where Skye was concerned. “I like having unbruised legs, thank you very much.”

Skye had at some point ended up laying crossways on the bed with her head on Simmons’ thighs. “Wanted to make sure you weren’t paralysed by embarrassment. The blush is still cute, by the way. I’m surprised you’re not breaking boy’s hearts left right and centre. Own that. Own your cuteness.” She poked Jemma’s cheek to emphasise her point. “Dimples. Unbelievable.”

The palm on her cheek was kind of a surprise, but Skye can roll with it. “Hey, Jem, did you try to poke and forget about the one finger limit, or?” She waggled her eyebrows, hoping to get across the innuendo she thinks is hidden in there somewhere. There generally is.

Jemma gave her a look that was much too serious for how tipsy they both were. “I don’t want to break boy’s hearts, Skye.”

“Oh.” Skye stared at her in confusion for a few seconds before her brain remembered to function. Her brain was also apparently set on betraying her, because when she tried to assume a position more suited to serious conversation and sit up a wave of nausea washed over her. “Is this a coming out speech? Because, like, I am so one hundred percent here for you, but also I think I’m about to throw up.” 

She reached out to poke Jemma’s cheek again, because it seemed like an excellent idea to her at the time, but she missed by an inch or two and ended up twisting a lock of Jemma’s hair between unsteady fingers instead. It was very soft.

Jemma leant into the touch and then, a split second later, her eyes widened and she bounced up and off the bed. Skye waved a hand at her in faux indignation for pushing her off of her lap.

“Well, um, I suppose I should be off then? If you’re in the, um, chucking up in the loo stage of the evening.” And before she could possibly hear Skye’s answer, which for the record would’ve been something along the lines of ‘Please stay, also please hold my hair for me I hate getting puke in my hair’, she’d rushed out of Skye’s bunk and narrowly avoided breaking Fitz’s nose where he was still lying on the floor, snoring gently.

Skye blinked after her, slowly. “That could’ve gone better,” she mumbled to herself, and then ran to the bathroom to throw up.

\----------------------

“I literally hate the entire world right now. Never let me drink again. Literally ever.” Skye ran a hand through her hair and sighed pitifully before taking another sip from her coffee, leaning sideways until she could knock shoulders with Ward.

He smiled at her. “If you didn’t drink so much last night you wouldn’t be having this problem. Discipline is-”

“Essential if you want to get ahead at SHIELD, yeah, blah blah blah. Whatever, Ward, I’m trying to wallow here. And it’s not like you were exactly the picture of a nineteenth century woman in there. I saw you sneaking beers all night.”

Ward shrugged and went back to eating his cereal. “I have a high tolerance for alcohol.”

Skye was about to bite back with something witty and cutting, as soon as her brain stopped feeling like she’d been shot fifteen times by a Night-Night Gun, but then May appeared in the kitchen and gave them both a glare that Skye was surprised didn’t actually set them on fire.

“Had a little too much last night, Agent May?” Ward was still grinning.

May turned the full force of her glare in his direction, and Ward actually flinched. “Would you like a kick in the head, Agent Ward?”

Skye hid a smile behind her hand.

“Wait,” she said a moment later, something that’d been niggling in the back of her mind suddenly pushing its way to the front. “Have either of you seen Simmons today? Fitz was in earlier, and I know Coulson sleeps in pretty late when we’re not due anywhere.”

May raised an eyebrow. “Why, you worried about her? She’s probably fine, we’ve had nights like that before.”

“Yeah, well, can’t I just be… concerned about a friend?” Skye waved her hands demonstratively, and nearly spilt coffee all over her shirt. Truthfully, she was worried. The fragments of their conversation that Skye could remember hadn’t seemed that bad, but she had a very vivid sense memory of Simmons’ hair between her fingers which was kind of weird.

“Sure you can, but I don’t think you need to be worried about Simmons right now. She can take care of herself.” Ward was still leant against the counter eating cheerios, which really detracted from the tough guy look he was clearly trying to cultivate.

She shrugged. “Doesn’t mean she has to though. I mean, what are friends for?” Having friends was a new thing for Skye but she was pretty sure apologising for things was one of the cornerstones of maintaining them.

“Do what you want, but my advice is to leave her be. She’s probably busy in the lab anyway. Stay here, I’ll make waffles.” Ward cooking wasn’t unheard of, but he generally had to be asked rather than offering to do it out of the blue. Skye smirked.

“You mean you’ll put frozen waffles in the toaster and serve them burnt. I know you Ward, nothing about you is getting past Skye no-last-name, superhacker.”

Ward smiled, but it seemed to be more for himself than Skye.

“Ugh, whatever, I’m gonna go look for her. At least she’s not gonna silently judge me over a bowl of Cheerios.” Skye grins at him, nods at May, and then walks away. She can feel him staring at her, which just makes her grin wider.

She stopped by her bunk to pull herself together and pick up the cardigan she’d found on the floor when she woke up which she was fairly certain Jemma had been wearing when she turned up.

“Ok,” she murmured to herself, grabbing her hoodie. “Where is a hungover science geek most likely to be right now?” She probably should’ve grabbed a cup of coffee for Jemma from the kitchen, but returning there would just be kind of embarrassing.

After struggling into the hoodie and tugging a brush through her hair, Skye realised that she’d been missing something startlingly obvious. “I should ask Fitz. Oh my god, how did I not think of that.” She smacked her forehead. “God, Skye, you’re such an _idiot_.”

\----------------------

“Hey, Fitz!” Skye spotted him through the glass doors of the lab and waved. “Have you seen Simmons around anywhere?”

Fitz gave her a nervous look. “That is… a very good question, Skye. One with a number of possible answers, actually, y’know, I mean, can we ever be sure we’ve really seen someone, it’s quite interesting on a metaphysical level really-”

“Cut the bullshit, Fitz.” Skye put a hand on his shoulder and gave him her best attempt at a serious look. “Where’s Simmons. I need to talk to her.”

“Well, um,” Fitz muttered, fidgeting. “I, um, I don’t think she really needs to talk to _you_ , if you understand what I’m getting at. Um.”

Skye froze. “What?”

“She, um, she said she kind of wants to be left alone for a little while.” He leant in a little closer to Skye, conspiratorially. “I think she might’ve drunk too much last night, just between you and me.”

Skye rolled her eyes and turned to leave. “Dude, you’re wearing sunglasses indoors and the lights are on their lowest setting. I’m onto you, Captain Hangover.”

\----------------------

“Ok, so that didn’t work.” Skye was positive about her chances, though. Fitz may have said Simmons didn’t want to see her, but there was no way she could avoid Skye entirely considering they were both staying on a plane cruising at 30,000 feet in the air. Jemma would have to have Black Widow level spy skills to avoid her for more than a few hours.

She spent another fifteen minutes walking slowly around the Bus, but no science geeks leapt out at her - literally or figuratively. It seemed Simmons had at some point become an expert at hiding.

The couch beckoned. Skye sat down with a sigh and put her feet up on the coffee table, a pillow over her eyes to keep her headache at bay.

She only got a few minutes of self pity, though, because soon enough she heard footsteps across the carpet.

Skye moaned slightly. “Who is that and can I tell them to go away without getting fired. Or neuralysed. Or both.” 

“Well, my security clearance doesn’t technically allow me to acknowledge the existence of neuralysers, but-” Agent Coulson seemed more amused than annoyed. Skye heard a light clink as he set something down on the coffee table.

Skye removed the pillow from her face to find a glass of water staring her in the face and Coulson stood on the other side of the table. It was pretty unnerving, even if Coulson was becoming less of a mystery to her and more like a friend. She figured saving someone from torture was basically the same as getting an instant kind-of-friends card. “Oh. Ok. I guess I can’t tell you to go away. Yet. I reserve the right to do that.”

Coulson gave her his creepy smile. It was a smile that said ‘I died once.’ the one that said ‘If you also died I wouldn’t be even a little sorry.’ Skye wasn’t sure if this was intentional or if Coulson was just naturally slightly creepy. “I was just trying to round everyone up for a debrief. I figured we all needed a break yesterday, but SHIELD protocol does require it, so-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, protocol four point one oh five or whatever, all missions completed under SHIELD jurisdiction require a full incident report following a team debrief. And yeah, last night was, uh, definitely something.” Skye sat up slowly and breathed through the head rush. “Do you need me to do anything SHIELD-y other than that, or should I just head straight over?”

He nodded. “If you could find Simmons, that’d be really helpful. Fitz isn’t helping, Ward has no idea, and I figured you might actually have something to contribute.” This time the smile wasn’t creepy. Coulson was pretty cool sometimes. “Debrief’s not for half an hour, so you’d better step on it.”

With that, he turned around and left, presumably to do agenty things in another corner of the Bus. Skye sighed, heaved herself off the couch, and headed off to start Find Simmons Round Two. As she’d already checked everywhere she could think of during round one, it wasn’t looking that promising.

\----------------------

A cursory look around the residential parts of the Bus was, once again, unsuccessful, Skye moved on to searching the many industrial areas, which she hadn’t been allowed into while she was still wearing the limiter bracelet.

They were never that interesting to her anyway, since most of her hacking could be done from the comfort of her bunk with her laptop and a bag of chips, but now she was stuck searching through them she was grudgingly impressed by the scope of technology on the ship.

“Simmons, you in here?” Skye called through, by her count, the sixteenth featureless grey corridor she’d found. She might’ve been walking in circles the whole time, though, so she wasn’t certain.

There was no answer, but Skye wasn’t really expecting one. Simmons had sat her down once and made her watch about three straight hours of Monty Python clips on youtube, and How Not To Be Seen had clearly made an impression on her. She did catch movement out of the corner of her eye, though, and she turned just in time to catch Jemma’s startled face slipping behind a pile of crates in the corner of the next room.

“Well, avoid me if you want, whatever, I guess, but Coulson sent me to find you because debrief is in, uh,” Skye checked her phone. “Wow, uh, ten minutes ago. I’ve been looking for a while, is my point.”

Jemma still doesn’t emerge from behind the crates, so Skye closes the door behind herself and goes to sit next to them. “Look, I know you don’t want to see me, Fitz told me that like, an hour ago, but I wanted to come and apologise.”

“You don’t need to apologise, Skye.” Jemma sounded like she’d been crying, which. Wow. Skye was not cool with that.

“Clearly I did something to upset you, so yeah, I kinda do.” Skye leant her head back against the wall. From that angle she could just make out Jemma sat in pretty much the same position against the crates.

“I promise, it’s not you, it’s-” 

“Oh my god, it’s not you, it’s me? Really? We didn’t break up, did we? Did we have like a half hour relationship last night?” Skye giggles.

Jemma sobs quietly and Skye stops giggling. “Hey, Simmons, seriously, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing! Please, I’ll be fine, just go to the debrief and then only one of us will get yelled at.”

Skye crossed her arms. “No way, José. We are dealing with this now, because I’m like one hundred percent certain I made you cry and I want to, like, never do that again.”

Jemma sighs, then crawls out from her cover to sit beside Skye on the floor, knees touching. “Ok, I admit, I was crying because of what happened last night, but it’s not like it was directly your fault. Don’t ever think that, Skye.” She gave Skye a very serious look, eyes wide. “Generally, I’m very happy around you, actually. This was an anomaly, I promise.”

“Oh, well, ok. Good! Yeah.” Skye was having a personal revelation, which was not the best thing to be having when sat on the floor in a storage hold. “What was it I did, anyway? I wanna make sure I don’t do it again, whatever it was.”

“You mean you don’t remember?” Jemma seemed a little disappointed, which couldn’t be right.

Skye made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat. “Not really? I remember parts of it, but I was pretty drunk. I think maybe I touched your hair at some point?”

“Oh. Well. Um. I remember considerably more of it than that.” Jemma seemed to be losing a lot of tension from her shoulders, and leant into Skye’s side.

Skye smiled at her. “Care to elaborate? Memory gaps kind of freak me out.”

“Well, you made a comment about boys, and I may have sort of… told you I didn’t like boys. Slightly. Yes.” Jemma was still leaning heavily on Skye. It was quite comforting, really. Skye felt like that around Jemma most of the time, if she was honest with herself.

“I think I remember that. That’s when I, uh, fondled your hair or whatever, right? And then you left. I thought that was because I was gonna throw up.”

“No, no, no,” Jemma shook her head. “It wasn’t that, I have medical training, people vomiting doesn’t freak me out. I just, um, I’ve never told anyone else except Fitz. About not liking boys. I may have been a bit scared of how you’d react.”

Something dawned on Skye. “Wait, did you think I was, like, mocking you? With the hair thing? I’d never do that, I promise, I really c-” And then she cut herself off, because that could’ve been a disastrously emotionally honest sentence.

“It seems a bit silly now, losing my head like that. I just, I remember at high school we were all girls, and they all seemed really affectionate with each other but the moment it got romantic the insults started flying.” Jemma sighed quietly. “I didn’t really believe you’d be like them, but it did remind me of that and I just. Ran.”

“Yeah,” said Skye just as quietly. “I can imagine.” And she can, because she remembers that as well. She went to ten high schools before finally just dropping out, and it happened everywhere. “Teenagers fucking suck, basically.”

Jemma giggled, a little hoarsely. “Agreed.”

Skye rested her cheek on the top of Jemma’s head. “At least we’ve grown out of that, huh?”

“Absolutely.” Jemma turned her head slightly, gazing up at Skye’s face. Skye lifted her head again, and stared back. Cheesy pickup lines were crowding themselves to the forefront of her mind.

“So,” she said softly. “I don’t mean to sound cliché, but-”

Thankfully, Jemma stopped Skye from embarrassing herself by leaning up and pressing their lips together. It was pretty tame, as kisses went, but Skye felt her stomach drop anyway. _Huh_ , she thought. _This explains a lot_.

They broke apart after a minute, smiling. “Well,” said Jemma, breathless. “I suppose that clears up what I’ve been trying to say.”

“Oh my god,” Skye replied, feeling a laugh trapped in the back of her throat. “We are so fucking oblivious.”

Jemma didn’t bother holding back a laugh. “Gosh, we really are. And, I mean, talking is wonderful, but I don’t think that kiss gave me enough data. I mean, I want to evaluate this as much as possible.”

“Kissing for science? I’m down.” Skye grinned and kissed her again, sliding a hand through Jemma’s hair. It was still just as soft as she remembered it.

She felt Jemma move her arms to rest around her shoulders, pulling her closer. She smiled against her lips.

They pulled apart again, reluctantly, and Skye pushed herself to her feet. “We are so late for debrief. Ward is going to kill us.”

Jemma grinned up at her, wide and genuine. Skye felt her stomach swoop again. “He wouldn’t dare. Coulson likes you too much.”

“Yeah, we’re totally besties now.” She pulled Jemma to her feet, linking their fingers. “So, uh, not to bring down the mood, but… does this mean we’re dating now?”

Jemma blushed. “Well, I think me putting my tongue in your mouth probably answered that already.”

“So that’s a maybe, right.” Skye put on a serious expression, but couldn’t hold it for long. They both dissolved into giggles, still holding hands.

Skye pulled Jemma out into the corridor, still giggling, and they walked back up to the lounge, Jemma leaning into Skye. The debrief was in full swing when they get there, giggles just barely abated. Their hands were still linked, fingers tangled.

Ward glared in their direction. “Nice to see you finally decided to turn up.”

“Sorry, Agent Buzzkill, we were busy.” Skye grinned sunnily at him, and she could see the exact moment he saw their hands. He seemed almost angry, which was not what she expected.

“Yeah, well, it’s nice that you’ve turned up. Get over here, lovebirds, we still need to go over battle tactics from yesterday.” Coulson had one corner of his mouth tilted upward though, so Skye was confident that this was his plan all along, the _dick_.

Fitz nodded at her, jerkily. From beside Skye, Jemma waved at him, smile barely contained.

Skye couldn't stop smiling if she tried.

**Author's Note:**

> [How Not To Be Seen](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltmMJntSfQI)
> 
> this is the product of my most recent aos catchup, in which i watched seven episodes in two days and am now convinced skye/simmons is going to become canon and they can both have the intense happiness they deserve (also i'm very into fitz/triplett, but that's a story for another day.)
> 
> title is, obviously, from taylor swift's you belong with me, the skye/simmons anthem.
> 
> you can find me crying about shieldy agents on my [tumblr](spacesholy.tumblr.com)


End file.
